Exodus 38:2

38:2 He made its horns on its four corners; its horns were part of it, ¹  and he overlaid it with bronze.

Exodus 27:2

27:2 You are to make its four horns ²  on its four corners; its horns will be part of it, ³  and you are to overlay it with bronze.

Exodus 30:3

30:3 You are to overlay it with pure gold – its top, ⁴  its four walls, ⁵  and its horns – and make a surrounding border of gold for it. ⁶ 

Exodus 37:26

37:26 He overlaid it with pure gold – its top, ⁷  its four walls, ⁸  and its horns – and he made a surrounding border of gold for it. ⁹ 

Exodus 29:12

29:12 and take some of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar ¹⁰  with your finger; all the rest of ¹¹  the blood you are to pour out at the base of the altar.

Exodus 30:2

30:2 Its length is to be a foot and a half ¹²  and its width a foot and a half; it will be square. Its height is to be three feet, ¹³  with its horns of one piece with it. ¹⁴ 

Exodus 30:10

30:10 Aaron is to make atonement on its horns once in the year with some of the blood of the sin offering for atonement; ¹⁵  once in the year ¹⁶  he is to make atonement on it throughout your generations. It is most holy to the Lord.” ¹⁷ 

Exodus 37:25

The Making of the Altar of Incense

37:25 He made the incense altar of acacia wood. Its length was a foot and a half and its width a foot and a half – a square – and its height was three feet. Its horns were of one piece with it. ¹⁸ 

Exodus 19:19

19:19 When the sound of the horn grew louder and louder, ¹⁹  Moses was speaking ²⁰  and God was answering him with a voice. ²¹ 

Exodus 19:13

19:13 No hand will touch him ²²  – but he will surely be stoned or shot through, whether a beast or a human being; ²³  he must not live.’ When the ram’s horn sounds a long blast they may ²⁴  go up on the mountain.”

Exodus 19:16

19:16 On ²⁵  the third day in the morning there was thunder and lightning and a dense ²⁶  cloud on the mountain, and the sound of a very loud ²⁷  horn; ²⁸  all the people who were in the camp trembled.

Exodus 20:18

20:18 All the people were seeing ²⁹  the thundering and the lightning, and heard ³⁰  the sound of the horn, and saw ³¹  the mountain smoking – and when ³²  the people saw it they trembled with fear ³³  and kept their distance. ³⁴ 

Exodus 21:29

21:29 But if the ox had the habit of goring, and its owner was warned, ³⁵  and he did not take the necessary precautions, ³⁶  and then it killed a man or a woman, the ox must be stoned and the man must be put to death.

[38:2]  ¹ tn Heb “its horns were from it,” meaning from the same piece.

[27:2]  ² sn The horns of the altar were indispensable – they were the most sacred part. Blood was put on them; fugitives could cling to them, and the priests would grab the horns of the little altar when making intercessory prayer. They signified power, as horns on an animal did in the wild (and so the word was used for kings as well). The horns may also represent the sacrificial animals killed on the altar.

[27:2]  ³ sn The text, as before, uses the prepositional phrase “from it” or “part of it” to say that the horns will be part of the altar – of the same piece as the altar. They were not to be made separately and then attached, but made at the end of the boards used to build the altar (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 363).

[30:3]  ³ tn Heb “roof.”

[30:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “its walls around.”

[30:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “and make for it border gold around.” The verb is a consecutive perfect. See Exod 25:11, where the ark also has such a molding.

[37:26]  ⁴ tn Heb “roof.”

[37:26]  ⁵ tn Heb “its walls around.”

[37:26]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he made for it border gold around.”

[29:12]  ⁵ sn This act seems to have signified the efficacious nature of the blood, since the horns represented power. This is part of the ritual of the sin offering for laity, because before the priests become priests they are treated as laity. The offering is better described as a purification offering rather than a sin offering, because it was offered, according to Leviticus, for both sins and impurities. Moreover, it was offered primarily to purify the sanctuary so that the once-defiled or sinful person could enter (see J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB]).

[29:12]  ⁶ tn The phrase “rest of” has been supplied in the translation for clarification.

[30:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “a cubit.”

[30:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “two cubits.”

[30:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “its horns from it.”

[30:10]  ⁷ tn The word “atonements” (plural in Hebrew) is a genitive showing the result or product of the sacrifice made.

[30:10]  ⁸ sn This ruling presupposes that the instruction for the Day of Atonement has been given, or at the very least, is to be given shortly. That is the one day of the year that all sin and all ritual impurity would be removed.

[30:10]  ⁹ sn The phrase “most holy to the Lord” means that the altar cannot be used for any other purpose than what is stated here.

[37:25]  ⁸ tn Heb “from it were its horns,” meaning that they were made from the same piece.

[19:19]  ⁹ tn The active participle הוֹלֵךְ (holekh) is used to add the idea of “continually” to the action of the sentence; here the trumpet became very loud – continually. See GKC 344 §113.u.

[19:19]  ¹⁰ tn The two verbs here (“spoke” and “answered”) are imperfect tenses; they emphasize repeated action but in past time. The customary imperfect usually is translated “would” or “used to” do the action, but here continuous action in past time is meant. S. R. Driver translates it “kept speaking” and “kept answering” (Exodus, 172).

[19:19]  ¹¹ tn The text simply has בְּקוֹל (bÿqol); it could mean “with a voice” or it could mean “in thunder” since “voice” was used in v. 16 for thunder. In this context it would be natural to say that the repeated thunderings were the voice of God – but how is that an answer? Deut 4:12 says that the people heard the sound of words. U. Cassuto (Exodus, 232-33) rightly comments, “He was answering him with a loud voice so that it was possible for Moses to hear His words clearly in the midst of the storm.” He then draws a parallel from Ugaritic where it tells that one of the gods was speaking in a loud voice.

[19:13]  ¹⁰ sn There is some ambiguity here. The clause either means that no man will touch the mountain, so that if there is someone who is to be put to death he must be stoned or shot since they could not go into the mountain region to get him, or, it may mean no one is to touch the culprit who went in to the region of the mountain.

[19:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a man.”

[19:13]  ¹² tn The nuance here is permissive imperfect, “they may go up.” The ram’s horn would sound the blast to announce that the revelation period was over and it was permitted then to ascend the mountain.

[19:16]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and it was on.”

[19:16]  ¹² tn Heb “heavy” (כָּבֵד, kaved).

[19:16]  ¹³ tn Literally “strong” (חָזָק, khazaq).

[19:16]  ¹⁴ tn The word here is שֹׁפָר (shofar), the normal word for “horn.” This word is used especially to announce something important in a public event (see 1 Kgs 1:34; 2 Sam 6:15). The previous word used in the context (v. 16) was יֹבֵל (yovel, “ram’s horn”).

[20:18]  ¹² tn The participle is used here for durative action in the past time (GKC 359 §116.o).

[20:18]  ¹³ tn The verb “to see” (רָאָה, ra’ah) refers to seeing with all the senses, or perceiving. W. C. Kaiser suggests that this is an example of the figure of speech called zeugma because the verb “saw” yokes together two objects, one that suits the verb and the other that does not. So, the verb “heard” is inserted here to clarify (“Exodus,” EBC 2:427).

[20:18]  ¹⁴ tn The verb “saw” is supplied here because it is expected in English (see the previous note on “heard”).

[20:18]  ¹⁵ tn The preterite with vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated as a temporal clause to the following clause, which receives the prominence.

[20:18]  ¹⁶ tn The meaning of נוּעַ (nua’) is “to shake, sway to and fro” in fear. Compare Isa 7:2 – “and his heart shook…as the trees of the forest shake with the wind.”

[20:18]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and they stood from/at a distance.”

[21:29]  ¹³ tn The Hophal perfect has the idea of “attested, testified against.”

[21:29]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he was not keeping it” or perhaps guarding or watching it (referring to the ox).